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Why Is Oil So Expensive?
Chinese Crude Imports Surge

By

Joseph Schuman The Wall Street Journal Online

Updated Aug. 20, 2004 2:39 p.m. ET

As $50-a-barrel oil seems increasingly inevitable -- it was briefly just sixty cents away during the peak of trading early this morning -- news from China provided a reminder of how much the unstinting demand side of the equation eclipses the more dramatic supply worries when it comes to driving up prices.

In this summer of petro-inflation, when futures for light sweet crude -- the highest-quality oil -- fetches a new record price almost daily, the major players in the story have become as familiar as those of presidential...